Guidelines

This resource guide consists of 10 sequential lessons designed for 55-minute class periods. The lessons are highly interactive and should inspire students to become involved in issues that affect their schools and communities. As students share diverse perspectives and solve problems together, they will learn to communicate, cooperate, and think critically. Research indicates that these skills help decrease discriminatory behavior. The following guidelines will help you conduct classroom discussions of sensitive and controversial issues.

Plan Ahead

• Become comfortable with the issue(s) yourself. Identify and clarify your own feelings and try to recall concrete incidents from your own experience that might help your students understand the issue(s) at hand more clearly.
• Approach discussions as a curious learner yourself. If you are relaxed and open to hearing different perspectives, your students will be more likely to do the same.

Create a Comfortable Climate

• Students will be more comfortable discussing sensitive issues when they can see each other face to face. Consider rearranging the room or moving to another setting to accomplish this.
• Assure students that the goal of these discussions is to learn from one another, to recognize similarities and differences, and to find common principles we all share such as respect and fairness.

Establish Ground Rules

• Help your students develop some guiding principles for discussions. This will enable everyone to participate freely and safely.

Don't Dominate the Discussion

• Remember that your role is to listen, interpret, and prompt, not to judge. Refrain from telling and preaching.
• Give students time to reflect on ideas that are raised in the discussion; don't jump in with a comment to fill an awkward silence.
• Encourage students to think about comments by asking questions such as, What do you base your opinion on? and What do you think would change that? Why might someone believe this?

What If...

• Someone breaks the ground rules? Stop the discussion and repeat the rules.
• The debate becomes heated? Remind students that the goal is to learn and grow in a spirit of collaboration, not to win an argument.
• Someone introduces false information or stereotypes? Present the facts without judgment. Remind students that while each person has a right to his or her opinion, all views should be supported with factual evidence. If there is a disagreement over facts, challenge students to find evidence for their positions.

Closure/Debriefing

• Provide opportunities for students to reflect on what they learned from a discussion. Ask: "What discoveries did we make today?" "Do we share some common values?" "How do we differ?"
• Encourage social action. Elicit ideas for concrete follow-up actions such as cleaning racist graffiti from a public site; writing a reasoned opinion article for a newspaper; or designing posters with messages about tolerance.
• Remind students that you will have discussions about these topics throughout the year so they will have additional opportunities to learn from one another and examine and clarify their beliefs.

Adapted with permission from "Talk About It," in the Fall 1992 issue of Teaching Tolerance, a publication of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Key Words

Bias - having an opinion for or against someone based primarily on his or her affiliation with a particular group

Discrimination - a hostile treatment of a person or a group based on his or her affiliation with a particular group

Genocide - the systematic destruction, or the attempted extermination, of an ethnic or national group of people

Hate crime - a criminal act directed at an individual or property because of the victim's actual or perceived race, ethnicity, gender, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, or disability

Prejudice - a negative attitude toward a person or group formed without thoughtful examination of individual characteristics; opinions largely based on stereotypes

Scapegoat - an individual or a group unfairly blamed for circumstances or problems that have varied causes

Stereotype - an oversimplified generalization about an entire group of people without regard for individual differences

Violence - an action that mentally or physically harms individuals or communities

NOTE: Hate-based actions also can create a hostile environment through intimidation and implied threats of physical violence, taunts, and property damage, including graffiti. Federal civil rights laws provide protection and recourse for people who become targets of discrimination.